Shortlisted for Memorial Exhibition

We're thrilled to have been selected by Historic England after our competition team (pictured below) submitted designs for a new memorial in Bristol.

Our entry will be shown alongside nine others at the free exhibition which explores the ways people and events have been commemorated in England through statues, plaques, shirnes and murals.

Details of all the selected designs were announced in the Architect's Journal. Our entry focuses on a bronze statue of Edward Colston which for 120 years has stood in the centre of Bristol, commemorating his philanthropic work in the city. Its inscription reads, “Erected by citizens of Bristol as a memorial of one of the most virtuous and wise sons of their city”.

What is not mentioned is that Colston was a slave trader and many now question why we continue to celebrate a man responsible for such heinous crimes. There have been calls for the statue to be pulled and our proposal takes a different stance, commemorating Colston in a new way, by acknowledging his philanthropy at home whilst surrounding him, inescapably, with the source of his wealth.